Our surprise was that we thought that
they were one brigade, but there were two
brigades (the 202 and 313 Infantry
Brigade)! We took the surrender of three
brigadiers, a full colonel, 107 officers, 219
JCO, and 7,000 troops.
(Lieutenant General A A K) Niazi (
commanding the Pakistani army in East
Pakistan) had ordered Sylhet to be held for
the defense of Dhaka. The second brigade
had landed the same day as us. We were
fighting two brigades at the same time.
Anyway, we were very cold, so I told this
Pakistani JCO, ‘Saab, aap ke pas kambal
hain store mein?’ (‘Do you have blankets in
your stores?’)
‘Haan Sahib (‘Yes, Sir’).’
So I said, ‘Main aap ko receipt de
doonga (I will give you a receipt), can you
give kambals to my men?’
‘Kambal nahin laye, saab? (Sir, you have
not brought blankets?)’
‘Hum sone ke liye nahin aaye, aap ko
barbaad karne ke liye aaye. (We did not
come to sleep, but to destroy you.)’
He digested that. Then I said, ‘Agar kuch
kambal reh jaate hain, hamare affsar sahi-
ba ko de sakte hain? (If some blankets
remain, can you give them to our officers?)’
‘Kya baat karte hain saab, affsar sahiba
bhi kambal nahin laye? ( What are you say-
ing sir, even the officers do not have blan-
kets?)’
So I said, ‘Saab, agar jawano ke paas
kambal nahin hain, to afsar sahiba ke liye
kambal kaise ho sakta hai? (When the
jawans do not have blankets, then how can
the officers have them?)’
He stood to attention, saluted me, and
said, ‘Janaab, agar hamari fauj mein
Bharat jaise afsar hote, ye din humne
dekhna tha (Sir, if in our army we had offi-
cers like those in India, we would not have
seen this day).’
Tell us about your wound.
At that time, I was still not wounded.
There was a BSF (Border Security Force)
commander who got panicky when he saw
all these fellows (prisoners) and asked,
‘Please send someone here.’ I told the CO
that I would go. I did not know that I was
walking on a minefield. I stepped on a mine
and my leg blew off.
A Bangladeshi saw this happening, he
picked me up and took me to the battalion
headquarters. They were feeling bad. I told
the doctor, ‘Give me some morphine.’ They
had none; it had been destroyed during the
operations.
‘Do you have any Pethidine?’
‘No’
I told him, ‘Could you cut this off?’
He said, ‘I don’t have any instrument.’
I asked my batman, ‘Where is my
khukri?’
He said, ‘Here it is, Sir.’
I told him, ‘Cut it off.’
He answered in Gorkhali: ‘Sir, I can’t do
it.’
I told him, ‘Give it to me.’
I cut my leg off and ordered: ‘Now go and
bury it.’
You tell people that you are embarrassed
to tell the story because it was nothing at all.
What was your first thought?
My first thought was for her (pointing to
Indian soldiers in action during the war
1971, A War Hero Remembers
The war ended December 16, 1971, with the signing of the Intrument of Surrender in Dhaka
his wife, Priscilla). I thought, ‘What a stu-
pid thing happened to me. It was beyond
my control, it just happened.’
Then the doctor came and tied it up. My
CO also came, ‘Ian, you are very lucky, we
have captured a Pakistani surgeon. He will
operate on you.’
‘Nothing doing, Sir, I don’t want to be
operated by a Pakistani doctor. Just get me
back to India,’ I answered.
By that time Dhaka had fallen and there
was no chopper available.
I then told the CO, ‘Two conditions.’
He immediately said, ‘ You are not in posi-
tion to put conditions.’
I told him, ‘OK, two requests. One, I don’t
want Pakistani blood.’
He retorted, ‘You are a fool.’
I said, ‘I am prepared to die a fool. My
second request, sir, I want you to be present
when they operate on me.’
The CO asked, ‘Why?’
I answered, ‘You know why.’ ( There had
been cases of torture). So, he agreed.
